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Brenda Ziska in Austria July 2016
Dear Praying Family & Friends, This summer I have several
special praises to God and prayer requests for which I would like
you to pray. The world here is all about the UEFA Euro 2016 - the
European soccer championship being held from June to July in
France. Please pray for the French Christian believers and churches
and the summer teams and missionaries that have gone to France in
order to tell people about God´s love for them. Even with the high
levels of risk in France, the French believers are reaching out to
the foreigners who have flooded into their country for the soccer
matches. Pray for safety of all in France during the rest of the
Euro Cup. Thank you for praying for our birthday parties at the
children´s home. It´s hard to believe but the children are becoming
teenagers!! Rafi just turned 14! They were little children when
Joe, Gabi and I began. (Rafi and his sister are pictured below).
One of our team´s giant praises this month is that the home has
said that the team may have a weekend “teenie” retreat with the
young people. It is scheduled for August 18-20. Thank you,
Jesus.
We want to especially thank the Vacation Bible school children
at the Parkside Church in Solon, Ohio for their generous gift. A
few summers ago the Vacation Bible School picked our ministry with
Austria children in Klosterneuburg as their project for the week of
Bible school. They sent notes and pictures and prayed for the
children.
Because of their gift s along with the letters, we are able to
pay for the housing and retreat this summer. The children are very
excited about going to the retreat and have already started
planning (see the picture below). Pray that everything works out so
that all of the children will be able to come and that they will
understand how much God loves them and learn to love Him back.
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Please keep the Women´s Breakfast in Klosterneuburg in your
prayers this summer. At the last Breakfast meeting we announced
that this would probably be the last meeting we´ll be having.
The restaurant manager has decided he no longer wants to let us
use his facilities. The women were shocked to find out that this
could possibly be the last Women´s Breakfast meeting in
Klosterneuburg. On the response cards many said they were willing
to pay a higher price for the food, or possibly have a meeting
without food. Some also suggested possible places to meet. That is
actually our major problem. We still haven´t found affordable
facilities that are near or in Klosterneuburg and large enough to
hold 150 women. We have discussed changing the format of the
meeting (no eating, just rows of chairs and a speaker, etc.).
Please pray this month for us as we seek a place to hold this very
effective evangelistic ministry.
We would like to thank you for your faithful prayers over the
years for the ministry of the Women´s Breakfast. I thought you
would enjoy a short video Jonathan made of the committee singing at
the last breakfast. (Please don´t post the short video online or on
your church homepage, but it can be used in your women´s bible
studies, at church or for prayer times when you´re praying for my
ministry with the women in Klosterneuburg.) The choir is actually
the committee of women who have worked over the years to enable
this ministry to happen in Klosterneuburg:
https://www.dropbox.com/home?preview=FFT+2016.mov Every time I see
the video I can feel God´s loving Spirit filling the room where we
met. We´ve been told many times that there is something
“different”, something “special” about this breakfast meeting.
https://www.dropbox.com/home?preview=FFT+2016.mov
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Thank God also for the follow-up meeting after the breakfast
that we had at our church - - 31 people came! Half of them came in
response to the invitations passed out in the neighborhood around
the community center where our church meets. Jonathan´s father,
Walter Mauerhofer, is a church planter in Austria, but also a
fabulous gardener. He showed a beautiful power point presentation
called “The Four Seasons of the Year.” It was scenery from Austria
and Switzerland and from his garden at different seasons of the
year. The beautiful pictures
were accompanied by music and verses talking about God our
Creator. Please pray that as the visitors go on vacation this
summer, they recall that God is the One who created this world they
are enjoying.
I´m sure you´re aware of the refugee crisis in Europe. A power
plant in Vienna‘s 22nd District is now home to more than 160
refugees. It´s 15 minutes from my home. At this point there are
only men being housed at the plant and being helped by the Austrian
Red Cross. Austria continues to accept refugees, but the flood of
so many people is a heavy burden on the little country no bigger
than Indiana. Here are some things, however, that you won‘t hear in
the news: God is moving among His people here. Churches began
almost immediately to see where and how they could help as the
people came flooding into the country.
In late November 2015 the diaconal (social) arm of the
evangelical churches in Vienna held a ”crisis“ meeting in one of
the Baptist churches in Vienna. More than 200 people from 45 little
churches attended! It was an “educational“and networking meeting.
The goal was to serve together those in need, however they could.
Some churches have begun German courses; some Austrians began
taking in refugees. In the fall when the Austrian Red Cross moved
the refugees into the power plant, the organizers sent out a plea
to those in the neighborhood for food and clothes. Someone from the
Kagran church got the info and a grass roots movement in the church
began. Kagran, along with other churches in the area, decided to
help. (Kagran was the first church Joe and I help plant in
Vienna.)
Every Tuesday evening someone waits at the Kagran church for
people to bring fruits, vegetables, clothes, soap, etc. for the
refugees. The supplies are taken to the power plant. Four to five
people from the church help prepare and serve the meal on Tuesday
evenings. Recently the men being housed in the shelter wrote a note
to the Red Cross to thank them for the help they are getting. They
said they were particularly thankful for the Tuesday group that
provided fruits and vegetables, which they normally don´t get. The
week I helped, Kagran provided a salad and a half an apple for
dessert with the linsen beans and bread the Red Cross gave for
each refugee. In the spring the Red Cross will decide whether to
continue serving refugees there. Although people are not to talk
about God there, Kagran is having a week long English camp this
summer. They asked if they would be allowed to tell the men about
it, in case they knew of children that might like to come. In the
end one of the English teachers for the refugees said he would like
to send his children to the day-camp, even though he´s Greek
orthodox. Most of the refugees are Muslim. If you´ve been thinking,
“What can I do about the refugee problem in the world?,” maybe you
can make Tuesdays your “Austrian refugee crisis“ prayer day?
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We´re all excited about a new arrival to our Sunday school this
June, Isaiah Mauerhofer. Jonathan and Raphaela, my co-workers in
the Klosterneuburg church, just had Isaiah on June 8th, 2016. Baby
and Mama are doing fine. Isaiah was dedicated at the church the
following Sunday. Papa got him just in time for Father´s Day, which
is celebrated one week earlier in Austria. Thank you, God, for
Isaiah´s safe birth. The last thing I´m really excited about and
would love to have you praying for is the evangelistic/young
believers Bible study that Jonathan, Raphaela and I are planning to
begin this fall in Klosterneuburg. I´m working on getting some of
the people from Joe´s evangelistic Bible study to come to this new
study and eventually to church. Please pray that my friends can
make the cross over from Joe to Jonathan. Thank you for your
prayers and financial support as I continue on with Joe´s and my
ministry here in Austria, plus start some new things. It´s so
encouraging to hear from you through notes and facebook. On a
personal note, please continue to pray that David and Daniel will
be able to find work.
Love from Austria,
Brenda Ziska [email protected]
Greater Europe Mission Greater Europe Mission Canada 18950 Base
Camp Rd.100 Ontario Street, Oshawa, ON L1G 4Z1 Monument, CO
80132-8009 Canada
A loving picture from the past.
mailto:[email protected]
